________________
Law of Karma
the Truth. Man, according to them, is a part of a wider setup and cannot perfect himself unless the whole is perfected.
Summing up
136
The general maxim 'As you sow, so you reap', which formulates the essence of the law of karma, has no evidence in the empirical world. If we try to look into the lives of individuals, the law is operative in its negative form. You do wrong and still you lead a happy life. You are virtuous still your life is full of miseries. Such cases have, no doubt, been attempted to be reconciled with the Law of Karma on the other grounds, specially on the basis of past actions i.e., in the life preceding the present one. But what is the scientific basis for the acceptance of past life? Cases have been reported wherein some persons are believed to be narrating the incidents of past life. But we have not as yet found an instance which has received universal acceptance as the scientific laws. Observation and experiment are the important steps of scientific procedure. It is on the basis of verification that scientific laws are established. Can the law of karma be verified? It cannot be verified empirically. So we have no scientific evidence for the law.
Working Hypothesis
The Analysts would surely brush aside such laws for the simple reason that they are meaningless. Only such terms and statements are meaningful as are verifiable. Whatever connotation we have of the term 'verification', the Law of Karma is not verifiable and so not meaningful. They will, therefore, dismiss it as meaningless.
However, the Law of Karma, remains a very potent hypothesis of the Indian explanation of human life and its functions.
If the concept of rebirth is accepted, the Law of Karma has to be accepted as a fact just as the physical and biological sciences presuppose the laws of uniformity and causation as their ground, so can the law of karma be shown as the ground
